Audio systems, such as stereos, are well known and can be found in practically every home and car. They come with many features, the most popular of which is the cassette-tape playback deck which plays audio signals stored on a magnetic tape within a cassette. The playback deck receives the cassette, reproduces the signals that were recorded on the magnetic tape within the cassette, and converts the stored signals to audible sounds.
Many audio systems also have a connection to a compact-disc player which reads digital data stored on a compact-disc and converts the digital data to audio signals. The audio signals are then provided to the sound system of the audio system to be played to the listener.
For those audio systems which do not have such a built-in connection, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,734,897 and 5,307,326 describe an adapter which will convert the output of a compact-disc player into one which can be read by a playback deck. The adapter includes a housing in the shape of a cassette but which does not contain a magnetic tape therein. Instead, it contains an audio record head which transfers audio signals to the playback head of the playback deck. The playback deck then processes the audio signals as if they were picked up from a magnetic tape.
Other stereo-like vehicle accessories are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,206,641, 5,263,199 and 5,193,141.